The present disclosure relates to a connector apparatus.
A surface mounting technology (SMT) connector (a board mounting connector) may be mounted in an electronic apparatus such as ECU (Electro Control Unit). There is a known connector including a first housing having a terminal locking lance which makes a primarily lock for a terminal, and a second housing, which is mounted to the first housing from a direction orthogonal to the terminal inserting direction to make a secondarily lock to the terminal (refer to JP-A-2008-171626 and JP-A-2010-129177, for example).
A connector 501 disclosed in JP-A-2008-171626 includes an inner housing 503 made of synthetic resign, and an outer housing 505 made of synthetic resign, as shown in FIG. 8. The inner housing 503 has a substantially box-shape, and is provided with a fitting groove 507, a lock arm 509, a pair of left and right side surfaces, a guide projection 513, and a final locking projection 515. The fitting groove 507 extends in an orthogonal direction Y3 orthogonal to a plane including a terminal inserting direction Y1 and a housing mounting direction Y2, and fits with a spacer 517 (a retainer) of an outer housing 505. The guide projection 513 is provided along the housing mounting direction Y2 so as to slidably fit in a guide groove 519 of the outer housing 505 with extending in the housing mounting direction Y2. The outer housing 505 is formed in one unit with a bottom cover 521, a front unit 523, a pair of side covers 525, a guide groove 519, a swollen part 527, and a spacer 517 as described above.
When mounting the connector 501, firstly, slide the outer housing 505 in the housing mounting direction Y2 with fitting the guide projection 513 along the guide groove 519, and fix it at a temporary locking position of the inner housing 503. At this timing, the spacer 517 is inserted into the fitting groove 507 of the inner housing 503. Then, insert a female terminal (not-shown) into a female terminal insertion hole 529 in the terminal inserting direction Y1. When the female terminal is completely inserted into a terminal receiving chamber 531, a terminal locking lance temporarily locks a lance locking step portion, and the female terminal is housed and held in the terminal receiving chamber 531. Finally, by pressing the outer housing 505 further in the housing mounting direction Y2, a spacer locking step portion of the female terminal is finally locked by the spacer 517. In this manner, the spacer 517 locks the female terminal at a final locking position so that the female terminal is not detached out of the terminal receiving chamber 531 even if the locking of the female terminal by the terminal locking lance is released.
There is a conventional connector apparatus, in which the board mounting connector is coupled with the connector 501 having a retainer (for example, a harness side connector).
The connector 501 having a retainer is configured such that a pair of side covers 525 is disposed on both sides of an external width that is the orthogonal direction Y3 of the spacer 517 so that the outer housing 505 is integrally formed with said pair of side covers 525 forming its both sides. Therefore, as to the connector 501 with the outer housing 505 fitting over the inner housing 503, the external size of said pair of side covers 525 becomes its external width. As a result, a board mounting connector formed by receiving the connector 501 inwardly should have an external width larger than the external width of the pair of side covers 525. However, a board mounting connector to be mounted on a board has a restriction in its external width due to differences in tolerance such as a linear expansion coefficient, flatness, curvature, and so on. Therefore, it is common to employ a plurality of board mounting connectors, such as each having small number of terminals with short external width, to be disposed in an opening-widthwise direction. For instance, when 120 pins of terminal are required, three board mounting connectors, each having 40-pins, are provided side by side. Further, such a board mounting connector is required for having a part at both ends of an opening-widthwise direction so that a reinforcing metal for fixing another board can be provided. Therefore, accumulating such a part as the number of connectors to be provided side by side increase may result in a proportional increase of the external width. Thus, a conventional board mounting connector has a problem such that occupancy of a board mounting area becomes large.